Uber was once again took the largest portion of ground transportation expenses processed through Certify’s platforms in the first three months of 2019. The ride-hailing giant, which is preparing to publically list shares in the company, was responsible for 73 per cent of all car-related transactions and 12 per cent of all 10 million receipts/expense reports in the first quarter of the year.

Meanwhile, Lyft’s share of the market increased 4 per cent year on year to 22 per cent and traditional taxis accounted for just 6 per cent of transactions.

Uber was also the least expensive car-related ride-hailing option among business travellers, with an average receipt of US$25.19 compare to $25.32 for Lyft (up nearly $6 since Q1 2018) and $33.53 for taxis. However, Lyft was the highest rated ride-hailing service with an average rating of 4.9 stars, according to Certify’s customer rating system.

Interestingly, of the eight markets Certify researched for the report, Uber use was up in the first quarter in all but two of them – there was a decline in New York and Atlanta – while Lyft saw gains nearly across the board, with only San Francisco showing a decrease. Taxi use has dropped precipitously over the past year, except in New York, where business travel use increased 5 per cent year on year.

The Q1 2019 SpendSmart report is the first to also take scooter rental into account, with global company Bird collecting 46 per cent of all receipts/ expenses compared to 42 per cent for Lime. Razor accounted for 8 per cent of all scooter rental transactions, followed by Scoot at 4 per cent.

Robert Neveu, CEO of Certify, said: “Our findings are significant in that they demonstrate continued interest in sharing economy services among businesses and business travellers. The emergence of scooters-as-a-service shows business travellers are time and cost-conscious – if there’s a better way to get around, the business travel community will find it.”

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